Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

820 Hebrews I. 13.
change, and that upon them the hope of the Messianic salvation
cannot rest.
Thus do we find here, in reality, the precise idea expressed
which we were led to expect. Ver. 8, seq.: the Messianic salvation,
in so far as it appears the act of a man, an anointed one,
" the seed of David," is already according to the prophecies of
the Old Testament far superior to angel-revelations, is immediately
Divine, eternal, everlasting. Vers. 10-12 : the Messianic
salvation, in so far as it appears as the act of God, is already
according to the expectation of the Old Testament an immediate
act of God alone, of which no creature, no celestial creature even,
is capable.
Thus the Son, as in vers. 8-9, so in like manner in vers. 10-12,
appears in a threefold opposition to the angels, ver. 7. a. The Messianic
redemjjtion is an act of the everlasting faithfulness of God
himself, not of a creature, h. It is everlasting, not mutable, c, It
is founded on a moi'al relation of God to men, on the faithfidness of
God, not on a relation to nature.
In conclusion then we see, that vers. 8-9 and vers. 10-12 are the
two members parallel to each other, which taken together form the
complete antithesis to ver. 7.
Ver. 13 forms the key-stone of the whole argument. Let us
look back for a moment on the course of the reasoning. The New
Testament revelation of God in the Son was opposed to that of the
Old Testament ris the absolute to the relative, ver. 4, and the absoluteness
of the former derived, 1, from the name Son which is
assigned in the Old Testament to the promised Messiah, but to none
among the angels, ver. 5 ; 2, from this, that where the (Messianic)
saving work of God, i. e., of the Trpw-roro/co^- is prophesied of,
merely the place of worshipping spectators belongs to the angels,
ver. 6 ; 3, vers. 7-12, from the immediateness of the union of God
with men in the Messianic salvation, from its everlasting duration
and its spiritual nature, inasmuch as it rests on the reciprocal
relation of human righteousness, vers. 8-9, and Divine faithfulness,
vers. 10-12.—It had been shewn in vers. 8-9, as well as in vers.
10-12, that an immediate elevation of man to God, and an immediate
act of grace on the part of God towards man, without the interposition
of angels, were already laid down in the Old Testament
as the fundamental characteristics of the Messianic salvation. This
immediateness is now in ver. 13 still farther confirmed by a crowning
passage from the Old Testament in which it is most clearly expressed.
The ^lessiah, it is said, shall sit upon God's throne, and
take part in the Divine dominion. Nowhere is this represented as
belonging to an angel.
The quotation is from Ps. ex. 1. Bleek cannot allow this psalm